A harmless little game for some, a living nightmare for others

The town of Northampton, England, is the site of some spooky happenings ever since locals started noticing a mysterious clown in random places, scaring the living hell out of people.

The clown doesn’t seem to say or do anything to residents other than wave, but that’s almost more terrifying.

A Facebook page purporting to be by the prankster called “Spot Northampton’s Clown” has amassed almost 20,000 fans, but judging by the comments, many are only following the clown’s movements out of fear.

“Already scaring the shit outa me! If I saw u standing there with balloons I’d just f&@&ing cry!!” reads one comment.

Another reads: “I’m scared of clowns and now I don’t even wana go out my house incase I see one:( omg omg.”

Numerous other posts seem to threaten the clown with violence, although they are usually removed from the page.

All in all, it’s caused quite a stir. While some Northamptonians seem to appreciate the effort to keep the town guessing about the clown’s whereabouts, anyone suffering from coulrophobia — an intense fear of clowns — is probably soiling many pairs of pants.

The clown, for what it’s worth, says he has no ill intent.

“It’s not me in the papers!” wrote the manager of the Facebook page. “I don’t terrorise people I just want to be spotted.”

UPDATE: The Daily Mirror newspaper reports on a short video about a clown in Northampton, which was uploaded to YouTube in May of this year. The clown in the “mocumentary” wears a similar outfit to the clown now haunting the streets — blue overalls with yellow sleeves and trim around the waist — but the filmmaker denies he’s behind the recent prank.

“There’s been lots of rumours that I’m the ‘Northampton Clown’ but I am NOT!” filmmaker Alex Powell told the newspaper. “And I don’t live in Northampton anymore.”

The current Northampton clown also denied the connection on his Facebook page.

“I may have to change my appearance as the actor in that ‘Local Clown’ film has the same costume as me,” he wrote on Monday.

He added: “If what i am doing does get too much for people, I will have to stop.”